GENERAL AWARENESS –Bank PO/SO/Clerical – 30.9.16

1After surgical strikes ,Rupee falls

The rupee on Thursday lost a whopping 39 paise, its biggest single-day fall in three months, against the US dollar to close at 66.85 after the Army carried out “surgical strikes” Wednesday night on terror launchpads across LoC.

Overall sentiment turned highly volatile on fears that heightening tensions between India and Pakistan could bitter sentiment for foreign investors who have been pumping funds into the world’s fastest emerging economy.

Month-end dollar demand from oil companies along with aggressive hedging strategy adopted by importers in the wake of currency volatility mainly weighed on the rupee trade.

In parallel, the benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled over 465 points to end at 27,827.53.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced higher at 66.44 from last close of 66.46 and firmed up further to 66.42 on sustained selling of the greenback by exporters and banks amidst higher opening in the domestic equity market.

However, the rupee suffered a big blow in noon trade and witnessed a sharp downturn to hit a low of 66.92 after reports of surgical strikes against Pakistan flashed alongside a massive fall in local equities.

2Indians failed to carry out CPR training

Only two per cent of Indians are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), a basic life-saving technique used to revive a person in emergency situations like heart attack, a major cause of deaths in the country, according to a survey.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death globally, leading to more deaths annually than from any other cause.

“Even as CVDs in India have become the leading cause of deaths, 98 per cent of the country’s population is not trained in technique of CPR, which is the most crucial and basic procedure to save a life in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA),”- survey

The survey, conducted by Lybrate, an online doctor consultation platform, included people from 20 cities in the age group of 25-50.

Less than 2 per cent of the 1,00,000 surveyed agreed to be knowing the technique (CPR), while only 0.1 per cent said they have ever performed it on someone in case of an emergency.

CPR is a life-saving technique useful in many emergencies, including heart attack or near drowning situation, in which someone’s breathing or heartbeat has stopped.

India has over 30 million heart patients, and about 1.7 million Indian hearts stop beating every year, as per World Health Organisation. Studies have estimated that CVDs will account for one-third of all deaths in the country by 2020.

3Goverment of Punjab removes 1000 Village Borders

Residents of nearly 1,000 villages in Punjab districts bordering Pakistan are being evacuated following escalation of tension between India and Pakistan in the wake of surgical strikes by the Indian Army across the LoC.

The villages being evacuated as a preventive measure include 300 in Ferozepur district, 290 in Gurdaspur, 137 in Amritsar, 135 in Tarn Taran, 65 in Pathankot and 60 in Fazilka.

Punjab shares a 553-km border with Pakistan.

“We are trying to evacuate residents of around 1,000 villages. Camps are being set up to accommodate people. We have made all preparations,” – Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal

The leave of all officials in the border belt, including police, has been cancelled.

He asked people not to panic and assured that police will remain stationed in the evacuated villages to protect property.

4After Durga Puja land owners of singur, to take their land back: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said landowners in Singur will get ownership of land after Durga Puja festival.

“After Puja all land owners will get their land back. It will be fit for agriculture,”- Mamata

mamata was happy to be part of the fight of farmers who were getting back their land.

Partha Chatterjee – the State Minister said they were never against industries, but against having industries on a multi-crop land.

“We were never against the Tatas. We told them you can do the factory on the other side,” – Partha Chatterjee

5US urges India and Pakistan to avoid escalation of tensions

The US State Department spokesperson John Kirby on Friday said that the US is following the situation on Line of Control (LoC) closely after surgical strikes were conducted by Indian Army early on Thursday to eliminate terrorist launched pads operating along LoC.

Kirby: “We’ve repeatedly expressed our concerns regarding danger that terrorism poses to the region.” He also said that US urges action to combat terrorist groups like JeM and LeT.

John Kirby also said that US Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken to Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on September 27 and “reiterated his strong condemnation for the September 18 Uri terror attack.”

“He (John Kerry) condemned terrorism in all its forms and cautioned against any escalation in tensions,” Kirby said.

He also urged both sides to maintain active communication in order to avoid escalation in tensions.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, in London to take part in the formal signing ceremony for the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant project, said it was a good deal for Britain and France despite widespread reservations.

“It’s a good deal. I know it has raised questions, particularly in France, but it represents an opportunity for the future of an entire industry,” Ayrault told reporters just before heading to the ceremony.

New British Prime Theresa May unexpectedly put the Hinkley Point project on hold in July when it was about to be formally signed, citing the need to review the details. She finally approved it two weeks ago.

“Mrs May had taken office and a new prime minister, a new government was perfectly entitled to examine the contents of the agreement,” he said, adding he was pleased May had finally approved a deal which would benefit Britain, France and Franco-Chinese nuclear cooperation.

Sudanese government forces have used chemical weapons repeatedly against civilians, including babies and young children, in one of the most remote regions of Darfur over the past eight months, according to allegations documented by Amnesty International.

Human Rights Group : The alleged chemical attacks, believed to have killed up to 250 people, mostly children, represent a “new low” in the catalogue of serious abuses perpetrated by government forces in the region.

The most recent of the alleged offensives recorded by the investigation occurred on 9 September. The attacks are ongoing, said Amnesty.

Using satellite images, more than 200 in-depth interviews by phone or internet, and expert analysis of dozens of distressing images showing babies and children with flayed and bloody skin, the investigation claims that at least 30 chemical attacks have taken place in the Jebel Marra area of Darfur since January 2016.

8Javelin throwersets new national record

Lucknow, Sep 29 (PTI) Javelin thrower Annu Rani smashed her own national record and in the process became the first Indian woman to cross the 60m mark on the third and penultimate day of the 56th Open National Athletics Championships here today.

Annu, who won a bronze in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, threw the javelin to a distance of 60.01m to erase her own earlier national mark of 59.87m which she made in July during the National Inter-State Championships in Hyderabad.

24-year-old Annu was representing Railways. Todays effort was his fourth national record in two years. Poonam Rani of ONGC won the silver with an effort of 56.73m while the bronze went to another Railwaywoman K Rashmi with 51.56m. In mens jump, for the first time in Indian athletics history, all the top three finishers cleared 2.20m.

Tejaswin Shankar of Delhi went on to win the gold with an effort of 2.22m while Chetan of Services and Sreenith Mohan of Kerala bagged the silver and bronze respectively by clearing 2.20m. In fact, Commonwealth Youth Games champion Tejaswin added 5cm to his personal best to win the gold and equalled the meet mark of 2.22m held by Jithin Thomas since 2012.

17-year-old Tejaswin, who earlier this year won a silver in the South Asian Games in Guwahati, surprised many of his senior competitors to win the gold. In the process, he posted a world leading mark in the event in the Under-18 category.

American high jumper Vernon Turner was listed with better marks (2.24m) than Tejaswin in the current IAAF lists. However the US jumper does not have a verifiable date of birth to prove his standing, and hence Tejaswin would get the credit of being at the top of the IAAF list.

9Inventor & Birth place of World Wide Web

Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist at CERN, invented the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989.

The first website at CERN – and in the world – was dedicated to the World Wide Web project itself and was hosted on Berners-Lee’s NeXT computer.

The website described the basic features of the web; how to access other people’s documents and how to set up your own server.

The NeXT machine – the original web server – is still at CERN.

As part of the project to restore the first website, in 2013 CERN reinstated the world’s first website to its original address.

On 30 April 1993 CERN put the World Wide Web software in the public domain.

CERN made the next release available with an open licence, as a more sure way to maximise its dissemination.

Through these actions, making the software required to run a web server freely available, along with a basic browser and a library of code, the web was allowed to flourish.

10Worlds Smallest Mirror

Using a mere 2,000 atoms of cesium, Professor Julien Laurat and his team at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris have created the world’s smallest mirror.

The nano-mirror has the same level of reflectance as materials that require tens of millions of atoms and could one day lead to new advances in optical computing.

The mirror uses a nanoscale optical fiber only 400 nm in diameter to place the chain of cesium atoms in just the right alignment to reflect the light.

For reference, a human hair is roughly 80,000-100,000 nm thick.

The team was able to use the mirror to temporarily trap the light beam, essentially creating a sort of optical diode that can store and retrieve light pulses.

11A Born Baby looks like an 80

A baby boy was born with Progeria, a rare premature ageing condition, in Bangladesh’s Magura district.

A baby with wrinkles on face, hollow eyes and a shrunken body resembling an 80-year-old’s.

A Baby is affected with a rare medical condition called Progeria. People with Progeria age eight times faster than others.

“Our first child, Aparna, has taken after her mother. But my boy looks like me, and I am happy,” – Baby’s Father

Most Progeria patients die very young. The family, however, hopes that the baby will grow into a healthy boy.

The baby looks old because his father also looks more than his age. I just hope that the baby will lead a long and healthy life

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